This year’s 13th edition has reached to provide a total of 4,200 film submissions from 110 countries. I may say with great admiration that these are to be considered very ambitious figures for an international film festival in our region. Some 600 feature-length films and 3,600 short films collections are comprised in the following categories: fiction, documentary, animation and experimental. A hard selective work of many years is required in order to come to a programme of 120 first premieres in the World, Europe, Balkans Region and in Albania. Special programs are added to the event which will all take place in the course of TIFF’s 9-day-event Competition. This year will not be missing those movies which have competed and have received awards at the most prestigious film festivals around the world.

The attractiveness towards TIFF is not associated to any financial enticement as far as we do not pay any kind of fee to film distributors for their projections and no monetary award will go to the winners. The interest in TIFF is rather linked to independent selection qualities as well as in the true values which will be brought to light during the competition.

TIFF’s annual event has reached an international status and success thanks to: its independent selection process, to its daily cured program further extended with retrospectives, homages and tributes paid to prominent authors, professional seminars and workshops and the presence of 4 international jury categories who take their decisions independently.

Tirana International Film Festival registered a new success story being listed by Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) among 103 world’s most important festivals for the 2015-2016 year-term. The list comprises the world’s most famous film festivals such as: CANNES, BERLIN, VENICE, SUNDANCE, KARLOVY VARY, LOCARNO, TRIBECA, MOSCOW, ROTTERDAM and many others.

TIFF’s founded during the period when the video and movie production industry and the film school did not exist in Albania and for this reason TIFF remained the only window where the latest trends of the cinema world were displayed, that kind of world which could not be visited either by the filmmakers because of the visa regime and imposed restrictions of free movement. In this context TIFF thought to bring to Tirana the world cinema’s professionals and enthusiasts of the authentic cinema and independent author. Important personalities of world cinema have participated as invitees, competitors they participate as a jury member at TIFF, such as: Franco Nero, Ken Loach, Theo Angelopoulos, Yves Boisset, Joshua Marston, Sam Green, Alexandre Rockwell, Motjo Armendariz, Duplas Brother, Jay Rosemblat, Eduardo Winspear, Bernd Buder, Daniele Vicari, Caveh Zahedi, Alexandar Manic, Chris Dupont, Daniele Cipri and many others.

Besides the international impact, TIFF has served as a promoter of the new generation students who believed in the future of the Albanian cinema. Meanwhile, TIFF served as a promoter of those few acting graduates who had to fill in the gaps which could not be ensured by the acting school.

Due to the prolonged emigration of the Albanians, the respective category of the competition is called “IN ALBANIAN” and not Albanian films. This choice gives opportunity to all Albanian countrymen wherever they are, to screen their films in Tirana, on the sole condition that the screenings should be in Albanian language. Film submissions have been really numerous from outside the Albanian and Kosovo’s territory and the figures are really exciting.

As our slogan from 2003 says: Think Different, See Alike, I invite you to watch a selection of 120 films from all around the world.

Good luck to everyone and enjoy these 9 days at TIFF 2015, 13-th edition.